- Oh My Malerick
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- Noble Member
Of course I'm looking at it in a slightly close minded way. Aren't you? (Rhetorical, because you are.)
The BR is effective in many situations, but is never (with the arguable exception of Mid Range) the MOST effective at that given range. Lets make a slight list off the top of my "I just woke up" head. These will be the weapons which would beat a BR at the given range, assuming that the wielders are of equal skill:
Close Range - AR (for sure), SMG, Spiker, PR (switch to another weapon after shields dropped), PP (same deal as PR), needler, shotgun, sword, mauler, Rocket Launcher... (my, what an extensive list!)
Long Range - Sniper Rifle, Beam Rifle, Any vehicle with shooting capabilities, Laser, Turrets.
As is clear, the BR is NOT the most dominant in close range. If you are using an AR in a close range fight with a BR, and you lose, then you either handled the situation poorly, the BR user had the jump on you, or you are simply bad.
As for medium range, a sniper rifle in the hands of a competent sniper would trump a BR. In fact, if anything, the Sniper is an overpowered weapon (at least compared to the BR). Name one other weapon which has the capacity to kill in one shot at any range, and a successful hit will at the very least leave the enemy one-shot. Limited ammo and lengthy (not really) respawn times aside, a Sniper Rifle in the right hands is at the least a dominant weapon, and often a game changer. And a Sniper in said heads is a DEATH SENTENCE in an AR starts games, but CAN be countered in a BR game.
Your claim that "the BR [...] over powers other weapons, and it is just a starting weapon", is at the same time true and false. The BR has the potential to combat any other weapon, which is what makes the BR so versatile. At the same time, it never has a guaranteed win against any other weapon in that weapons 'sphere of maximum effectiveness'. I can't begin to count the number of times I've been mowed down by an AR at close-ish range, even while back pedalling, sidestrafing and shooting - I only get 3 BR bursts out before I'm ground down.
You also seem to be ignoring the skill component when talking about the BR. Unlike the AR, it takes some TALENT to be able to consistently get a good 4-5 shot kill on someone who is strafing, juking, and otherwise actually trying to live. The AR, no matter HOW you want to look at it, is a spray and pray gun. You can burst fire for increased accuracy, which will actually result in doing MORE damage than the BR. If I recall correctly, the AR does 7.2 damage/bullet, and the BR only does 6/bullet, some comparable numbers (if I find them, I'll amend the post, but it IS AR>BR). EDIT - Alright, found it. I'll cite the source links at the bottom. The AR does 7.5 damage/bullet, and the BR does 6/bullet, making it 18 per burst, which given the RoF of the BR vs the AR, makes the BR much weaker. Again, links to this and some other interesting information at the bottom. (end edit) Giving players a starting weapon which requires some degree of skill at all ranges DOES make the playing field lean more towards more skilled players, but isn't that the point of a game? May the best player win. You can still pick up your Spiker and beat the BR at close range though.
One reason to consider why the BR appears so widely used and other weapons so under used is simply because as with most FPS games, Halo is MidRangeCombat-centric. An AR starts promotes camping and close range combat, which in turn promotes greater frequency of melee battles, and even YOU must acknowledge the broken melee system (which your 'perfect' AR would only promote). Think of any popular map, or even your favorite map, and notice that while containing SOME close quarter and long ranged elements, that map is mainly based around mid-ranged combat. As someone before me in this thread mentioned, it is the nature of the game, not the Battle Rifle's jack-of-all triades master of none utilitarian nature, which you should have an issue with.
Sorry if that post is disjointed, unorganized and all over the place, as stated I just woke up. You should be able to understand the gist of it though.
Links:
http://halowiki.net/p/Weapon_damage
http://halowiki.net/p/Weapon_Time_to_Kill_Chart
http://halowiki.net/p/Weapon_Data_Gathering
[Edited on 07.22.2009 1:42 PM PDT]